Writing for inclusivity of First Nations people
Reconciliation is a national priority. Your role as a communicator can have a positive impact on reconciliation and promoting equity. As the connectors between organisations and the public, our work can influence change – or it can do damage.
Our facilitator will guide you on foundations of inclusive language and terminology. You will understand how to:
- add a reconciliation focus to your writing
- choose respectful words and terms
- use a respectful tone under the ISO plain language standard
- write content for and about First Nations audiences with confidence.
You’ll come away more engaged with respectful writing and why it’s essential to connect with First Nations audiences. Plus, with a deeper knowledge in this area, your writing can contribute to progressing reconciliation and help to close the gap on life outcomes between First Nations and non-First Nations people.
- Up to 8 participants
- 2 hours or 2 x 1 hours
- In person or live online
- We are on the Australian Government Plain English Training Panel
What you'll learn
Part 1: Understanding reconciliation and respect
- The importance of reconciliation and our role in it.
- Influencing through language – be a change agent.
- The relationship between plain language and inclusivity.
Part 2: Practical application
- Respectful words and terms.
- Applying an inclusive lens to writing and editing.
- Including an Acknowledgement of Country.
This course is for anyone who writes or edits content for or about First Nations people.
Ask us about this course
Course outline
Understanding reconciliation and respect
- Overview of communications for First Nations audiences.
- Journey of words through time.
- Implications of word and phrase choices.
- Plain language standard for respectful tone and engaging content.
- What culturally responsive writing looks like.
- Useful resources.
Practical application
- Inclusive phrasing – removing the use of ‘us’ and ‘them’.
- Avoid putting First Nations people and cultures in the past.
- Deficit and strengths-based language.
- Appropriate capitalisation.
- The difference between people and peoples.
- Editing with an inclusive lens.
- Writing and applying an Acknowledgement of Country.
Location
This course can be delivered online or in-person (Canberra or Sydney only).
Duration
This course typically takes 2 hours. This can be done as a single session or 2 x 1-hour sessions.
Participant numbers
We can deliver this course for groups of up to 8 people at a time. If you’d like to include more people, we would need to split the groups and run separate sessions.
How we engage participants
This course is delivered as a yarning circle. It is designed to be a conversation.
We'll follow the course structure, using examples to illustrate concepts. It's an open format where participants can feel safe to ask questions and suggest ideas.
To engage participants, we:
- ask participants to introduce themselves and reflect on their work so far in this area
- encourage participants to ask questions to build confidence and understanding
- reflect on and learn from the past, and inspire participants to be agents of change
- share stories of good practice – and the not-so-good.
Participants will come to the course with different levels of knowledge and confidence. This course will provide participants with useful resources to continue their own journeys of reconciliation and inclusive writing for First Nations audiences.
Course materials
For in-person training, we can arrange printing materials, or provide the files for you to print in-house.
We prefer using printed worksheets as this allows participants to focus on the content with fewer distractions (like laptop screens).
How we tailor this course
Discovery
We'll meet with you first to understand your work environment and relationships with First Nations audiences.
We'll seek to understand what:
- you want to achieve through this training
- types of communications you write
- audiences you write for
- specific issues we can overcome.
We’ll uncover context, including:
- participants’ existing knowledge and confidence in inclusive writing
- participants’ roles and functions
- First Nations stakeholder involvement
- examples and case studies we can use in the training.
We’ll do this through:
- an initial orientation conversation
- desk research, including reviewing source content.
Course content design
This course is designed to provide foundations of inclusive writing. Participants are encouraged to continue their learning through research and practice.
We’ll make sure this course is tailored in the right way through:
- presenting an initial outline for feedback
- developing course materials for feedback, including presentation deck and worksheets
- iterating on the above to meet your requirements, based on your feedback, and feedback from participants.
Validation
We share the materials and outline with you to make sure it’s aligned to what you need.
Trainer
The training is delivered by Danika Davis, a Dharawal woman with more than 20 years’ experience in writing, editing and digital content for government and First Nations organisations.
Evaluation
We check back in to assess what worked, and share what we heard from your team members.
Prerequisites
Please note this is not a replacement for cultural capability training. It is focused on culturally responsive writing and editing.
Although cultural capability training is strongly encouraged for all individuals, it’s not a prerequisite for this course.
Combine training with our other offerings:
Training + coaching
We train you then check in with you during 1:1 or small group coaching sessions
Training + pilot writing
We teach you then run through applying what you learned to selected content.
Your trainers
Danika Davis
Danika Davis is a Dharawal woman with more than 20 years’ experience in writing, editing and digital content for government and First Nations organisations. She is a senior copywriter and editor experienced in writing and editing for and about First Nations people.
What our clients say